It's not like it's just 8 teams. They have amalgamations competing too.. Most counties have only really 6 to 8 teams capable of winning a Senior Championship.

It's works for kerry up to other counties to look at their own structures

All the counties it seems run their own set up and thats fine, if it works then grand, but to go into the All Ireland club series, thats were it breaks down, there needs to be a uniform approach to this, were all the counties are doing it the same way, not the Kerry way

In Antrim, we've a team that was promoted to div 1 this season that play in, and won the Intermediate championship, this club has never won a football trophy before and felt that intermediate was their level, they exceeded all their expectations and have done very well, but, if the policy was in place that div 2 teams play intermedaite then they would have had to play senior!

We've also a div 2 team that will only play senior hurling though, as tradition abd their members wouldnt allow their team to play at that level, regardless of the possible benefits of a run in the All Ireland club.

So it needs to come from Croke

Logged

Anything I post is not the view of the County Board!! Nobody died in the making of this post ;-)

It's not like it's just 8 teams. They have amalgamations competing too.. Most counties have only really 6 to 8 teams capable of winning a Senior Championship.

It's works for kerry up to other counties to look at their own structures

All the counties it seems run their own set up and thats fine, if it works then grand, but to go into the All Ireland club series, thats were it breaks down, there needs to be a uniform approach to this, were all the counties are doing it the same way, not the Kerry way

In Antrim, we've a team that was promoted to div 1 this season that play in, and won the Intermediate championship, this club has never won a football trophy before and felt that intermediate was their level, they exceeded all their expectations and have done very well, but, if the policy was in place that div 2 teams play intermedaite then they would have had to play senior!

We've also a div 2 team that will only play senior hurling though, as tradition abd their members wouldnt allow their team to play at that level, regardless of the possible benefits of a run in the All Ireland club.

So it needs to come from Croke

I'd imagine if it was dictated from Croke Park, every county would have club competition structures not that different from Kerry.

From what I've heard Kerry seem to have cut-throat competitive senior, intermediate and junior club championships, where teams have to work hard and perform on the pitch to move up the grades and if they slack off they can quickly find themselves relegated. The intense competition at all levels drives standards.

Even aside from the club All-Ireland competitions, it's clear Kerry's club structure is close to the best (if not the best) in terms of producing footballers for intercounty.

I can sort of understand why dual counties might have issues with fixtures copying Kerry's structures to the same extent but to my mind it's just rank stubborn stupidity by a whole lot of counties (where hurling is less of an issue than in Kerry) not to adopt a similar approach.

It's not like it's just 8 teams. They have amalgamations competing too.. Most counties have only really 6 to 8 teams capable of winning a Senior Championship.

It's works for kerry up to other counties to look at their own structures

All the counties it seems run their own set up and thats fine, if it works then grand, but to go into the All Ireland club series, thats were it breaks down, there needs to be a uniform approach to this, were all the counties are doing it the same way, not the Kerry way

In Antrim, we've a team that was promoted to div 1 this season that play in, and won the Intermediate championship, this club has never won a football trophy before and felt that intermediate was their level, they exceeded all their expectations and have done very well, but, if the policy was in place that div 2 teams play intermedaite then they would have had to play senior!

We've also a div 2 team that will only play senior hurling though, as tradition abd their members wouldnt allow their team to play at that level, regardless of the possible benefits of a run in the All Ireland club.

So it needs to come from Croke

I'd imagine if it was dictated from Croke Park, every county would have club competition structures not that different from Kerry.

From what I've heard Kerry seem to have cut-throat competitive senior, intermediate and junior club championships, where teams have to work hard and perform on the pitch to move up the grades and if they slack off they can quickly find themselves relegated. The intense competition at all levels drives standards.

Even aside from the club All-Ireland competitions, it's clear Kerry's club structure is close to the best (if not the best) in terms of producing footballers for intercounty.

I can sort of understand why dual counties might have issues with fixtures copying Kerry's structures to the same extent but to my mind it's just rank stubborn stupidity by a whole lot of counties (where hurling is less of an issue than in Kerry) not to adopt a similar approach.

The divisional system also means that all players who are good enough have the chance to play club football at the highest level, regardless of how good their own club's team is.

This is important both at adult and underage level. In many counties, a good player who comes up through the system playing for a small rural club (a description which applies to the majority of clubs in Kerry tbf) will struggle to make county underage and senior teams unless he is exceptionally talented, and even if he is exceptionally talented it's a hindrance to his development. In Kerry, a good player can play for his divisional team as well as the club team coming up through the age grades, will develop better through playing at a higher level, and will get the chance to be noticed by county selectors at the various grades.

The benefits are apparent when you look at Kerry panels and see the number of players who make it from small clubs that compete in the lower echelons.

Divisional teams is a discussion though for another thread, they don't play in the Munster club championship.

Indeed, but the main reason that Kerry has a small number of clubs in its senior championship is that the rest of the teams in the competition are divisional sides.

However, this still means that the best intermediate team would be a senior team in another county and so very competitive in the intermediate championship.

Yes, exactly. If there was no divisional system, there would be more senior clubs, and the intermediate champions would be a lower-ranked club. But Kerry are not going to abolish the divisional system, nor should they with all the advantages it has for player development and the county teams. In fact, I would agree with twohands that more counties should adopt it, especially those that are not dual.